The Terminally Ill Youngest Daughter of a Medical Dynasty Is a Genius Physician - Chapter 3

—————
This chapter was translated by Lunox Novels. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
—————

Chapter 3
I gave a small nod.
‘Grandfather is back.’
My grandfather, summoned to the Imperial Palace, returned once a year and stayed with the family for about a fortnight.
This was that time.
It was customary for everyone in the family to go pay their respects to him.
‘Everyone except me, of course.’
Yeon Do-pyeong glared at me, grinding his teeth.
Then he suddenly whirled around and barked at Hong Dan-i without warning.
“You!”
“Y-yes, yes?!”
“Get all of that cleaned up right now!”
He gestured vaguely at the medicinal herbs scattered across the floor. When Hong Dan-i hesitated, he let out an immediate roar.
“Move! Why aren’t you moving? Do you want me to do it?!”
“No, no, I’ll do it right away!”
While Hong Dan-i rushed to sweep up the herbs, Yeon Do-pyeong lowered his voice and made me a veiled threat.
“You. Be grateful I’m letting this slide because of Grandfather today.”
He took a step toward the door, then stopped.
“…And you.”
Yeon Do-pyeong turned slowly, his eyes gleaming with menace.
“Breathe a word of this to anyone, and I’ll make sure those four lifelines you have left are cut too.”
He left that cold warning hanging and turned to go.
Thump. Thump. Thump.
Silence descended only after the door closed.
“Hah.”
I finally let out the breath I’d been holding.
‘…I did it.’
Just before Yeon Do-pyeong left the room.
I’d tried to seem unbothered, but I hadn’t missed how his shoulders trembled ever so slightly.
‘A man who’d rather die than bend his pride—he’ll absolutely hate having his weakness exposed.’
Now that I had a firm hold on Yeon Do-pyeong’s weak point, he wouldn’t dare treat me as recklessly as before.
‘The immediate problem is solved…’
Hong Dan-i and Yeon Do-pyeong.
I’d dealt with the two people who’d been tormenting me directly.
‘Now I need to organize what comes next.’
I steadied my breathing and rose from where I sat.
Then I opened the door and gazed out at the sunlight streaming down.
‘About the things I need to do going forward to protect Yak-ryeongga and myself.’
With a firm expression, I took in the full panorama of Yak-ryeongga.
* * *
I hadn’t always been able to act with such certainty from the beginning.
“Please, please help me!
When I first regressed, I went straight to my uncle for help.
“So he’s finally lost his mind. Lock him away immediately.”
What came back was confinement, and I couldn’t last more than ten days before I died.
In the next life, I sought out Grandfather, but—
“Grandfather! Please, please listen to me! The family is in danger, in danger! I’m serious!”
Speaking frantically in a fever, my uncle and Hong Dan-i dismissed it as delirium from my illness.
I even tried to escape the family.
But surviving long outside with the frail body of a seven-year-old was impossible.
If no one was going to save me, I had to find a way to survive on my own.
“I’ll help you, brother.”
In the next life, I secretly learned the Medical Arts while pretending to help my cousins with their work.
I’d started it to treat my own illness, but through repeated research, I’d developed countless medicinal combinations.
After countless failures, there was only one conclusion.
I couldn’t survive by asking for help or running away.
I had to forge my own path to survival.
‘Thankfully, there’s no one around.’
Behind the Byeoldang where I stayed was a large lake.
The water’s surface, brimming with clear early-summer light, was transparent as glass, and the Hyeonmu Shrine sat quietly floating within it.
The Hyeonmu Shrine was not a place one could enter at will.
Perhaps for that reason, even on a day like today when grandfather was returning, the grounds around it remained quiet and empty.
“This is perfect.”
I dropped heavily onto the bank of the Lake, picking up a fallen twig from the ground.
Then, slowly but without smudging a single character, I wrote on the earth.
[Terminal Illness]
[Jeok Yeon-hu]
In my past life, it was always one of these two that killed me.
To overcome the illness, I needed rare medicinal ingredients and a proper treatment environment.
To stop Jeok Yeon-hu, I needed the power to move people before he consumed the family whole.
Most of all, in my past life, Jeok Yeon-hu destroyed Yak-ryeongga and slaughtered every member of the family.
And father was among them.
‘……I won’t accept that.’
I had believed father died resenting me, but Jeok Yeon-hu made it clear otherwise.
Father’s only concern, until the very end, had been my wellbeing.
Which was the truth, I could not yet say for certain.
But one thing was unquestionable: father had given everything to cure my illness.
Until now, father had fought to keep me alive.
So this time, it was my turn to save him.
If that was so, there was only one answer.
A position where I could manage medicinal ingredients, move people, and decide the family’s future.
I drew a long line through the two words I’d written first.
Then I wrote something new beneath them.
[Family Head]
“I have to become the Family Head.”
To protect the family and survive myself, I needed that much authority.
And to do that, I had to prove my ability first.
In my mind, I recalled the medicinal ingredients needed to make “that medicine.”
To obtain those ingredients and create something of proper efficacy, I would have to go to the medicine merchants at the marketplace.
But as a patient, I couldn’t leave the family without the current Family Head’s permission.
‘Let me start with what I have on hand.’
I slowly pulled myself to my feet.
Walking along the Lake, I reached a secluded spot tucked into the corner of the scrubland.
It had once served as an apothecary, but now stood abandoned, treated as nothing more than a storage shed.
Creak.
As I pushed through the door, old medicine mortars and decoction vessels came into view, along with weathered ingredient storage containers.
From there, I withdrew a small bundle.
Inside were medicinal ingredients I had gathered little by little over time, earned by doing my cousins’ work in their stead.
‘Good.’
I withdrew them one by one, checking their condition.
Cheonggung, Baekji, Hwangjung, Jasoyeop, and Hyeonryeong Root.
They were certainly all rare things.
But……
‘These are low grade.’
A bitter smile escaped unbidden.
In a way, it was inevitable.
These ingredients were items Yeon So-taek had brought for teaching his son Yeon Do-pyeong—materials of a quality where damage was entirely irrelevant.
Still, having them was better than having nothing.
I set aside unnecessary thoughts and placed the ingredients into the mortar.
Crunch. Crunch-crunch.
In a seven-year-old body, it was no simple task. My arms trembled quickly, and my palms ached with a dull throb.
But this was a medicine I had made dozens of times before.
I could make it with my eyes closed, so familiar was the process.
How much time passed?
At last, a small bowl filled, and a subtle medicinal fragrance drifted through the air.
I touched my fingertip to the medicine and tasted it lightly.
“Mm.”
This much should have some effect. But……
‘It’s still not enough.’
With such weak efficacy, I could not win grandfather’s genuine recognition.
I set down the bowl quietly.
‘If only I had access to a better-quality Hyeonryeong Root….’
A superior grade would transform the medicinal properties entirely.
But that was precisely the kind of thing beyond my reach in this present life.
Then it happened.
Crackle—!
“…What?”
A faint sound came from the wall of the storage room, where no one ought to be.
Crackle, crackle.
This time, distinctly.
A chill ran down my spine.
‘Surely not…?’
My actions had diverged from my previous life—perhaps an unforeseen variable had emerged.
Perhaps the shadow of Jeok Yeon-hu, of the Jeok Hyeon-ga, already hung somewhere within this household.
And if by some reason they meant to kill me now, this very moment…?
‘I have to hide.’
Panic seized me as I scrambled toward a corner to conceal myself.
“Squeak!”
A small, piteous cry suddenly pierced the air.
“Squeak, squeak, squeak!”
As I moved toward the sound, an old jar rattled and shook.
I blinked as I drew near.
‘An otter?’
A small otter had wedged itself at the mouth of the jar, its plump belly stuck fast, thrashing helplessly.
Its head and front paws had mostly squeezed free, and its small front legs clutched something tightly against its chest.
“Easy, easy now.”
“Squeak…”
Carefully, I slipped my hands beneath its arms and pulled.
Slip—!
It came free without much effort. The otter tumbled onto the floor, rolling.
The impact dislodged what it had been clutching, and it fell directly at my feet.
“Squeak!”
I reached down to pick it up and held my breath.
“A Hyeonryeong Root?”
Not merely good—exceptional.
Clear azure radiance shimmered along the root, and a rich, profound fragrance curled at the edge of my senses.
My heart hammered against my ribs.
‘With this…’
I could craft a flawless medicine and prove my skill to my grandfather, the Family Head.

—————
This chapter was translated by Lunox Novels. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
—————